NBC Sports Kicks Off 2013 RUGBY SEVENS Coverage This Saturday, 2/2

NBC Sports Network will kick off its 2013 Rugby Sevens telecast season with two hours of coverage of the Hertz Sevens tournament this Saturday at 5 p.m. ET, from Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand. Coverage will include full matches as well as highlights from the two-day tournament.

The Hertz Sevens tournament in New Zealand is the fourth of nine stops on the 2012-13 HSBC Sevens World Series. One of the premier Rugby Sevens events in the world, the Hertz Sevens will feature the USA Eagles and 15 other national teams competing to gain points in the Sevens World Series standings.

Played on the same size field as traditional 15-player rugby, Sevens Rugby is played with just seven players per team. Matches have seven minute halves, with two minute intervals for pool and knock-out matches.

Veteran announcer Bill Seward will serve as the play-by-play announcer for the telecast. Seward will be joined in the booth by former USA Sevens captain and USA Rugby World Cup participant Brian Hightower.

NBC and NBC Sports Network is the domestic television home of the HSBC Sevens World Series tour. In 2013, NBC, the NBC Sports Network and Universal Sports will combine to televise more than 25 hours of HSBC Rugby Sevens coverage from New Zealand, China, Japan, Scotland, England and the United States. On February 9-10, NBC and NBC Sports Network will telecast more than 11 hours of live coverage of next week's USA Sevens Vegas Tournament in Las Vegas, Nev.

The NBC Sports Group is also the exclusive home of USA Sevens Vegas and the Collegiate Rugby Championship. NBC and NBC Sports Network will telecast seven hours of collegiate Rugby Sevens action from the Collegiate Rugby Sevens Championships in Philadelphia, PA., on June 1-2. The Collegiate Rugby Championship is a joint collaboration between the NBC Sports Group and USA Sevens LLC.